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Data gathered by PayScale from the 2016–2017 academic year shows that people with bachelor’s degrees in philosophy tend to earn more over their lifetime than people with degrees in any other humanities field. Philosophy students have both the highest starting salary of any humanities major ($44,700) and the highest percent increase between starting and mid-career salary ($84,100).

Additionally, the National Association of Colleges and Employers found for the graduating class of 2015 that, within six months, just over 78 percent of graduates with bachelor’s degrees in philosophy had either found employment or were continuing their education (28.6 percent). Graduates with a BA in philosophy had a mean starting salary of $43,427. Those graduating with a master’s degree in philosophy in 2015 fared even better, with over 85 percent finding employment or continuing their education (47.8 percent) within six months of graduation. Their mean starting salary was over $75,500.

Bachelor’s Degrees

Bachelor’s degree completions in philosophy more than doubled from 1987 to 2014, and the percentage of bachelor’s degrees issued in philosophy as a percentage of all bachelor’s degrees awarded, though small, rose slowly but steadily throughout that same time period.

Master’s Degrees

Master’s degree completions in philosophy approximately doubled between 1987 and 2014. Growth occurred in much the same way that it did at the bachelor’s level, with two surges separated by a period of stagnation, one that in this case started in the early 1990s and lasted through the end of that decade. Philosophy degrees represented 0.14 percent to 0.20 percent of all master’s and first professional degrees awarded in each year of the two-decade span examined here. However, the share of master’s degrees in philosophy remained relatively stable since 1987.

Doctoral Degrees

The number of doctoral degrees completed in philosophy grew steadily from 1987 to the turn of the century, as did the discipline’s share of all doctorates conferred. The mid-2000s were a period of stasis for these completions, but a combination of increasing doctoral completions across all fields as well as a reduction in philosophy doctoral degree completions in 2014 reduced the share of completions to 1987’s levels.

APA Membership Demographics

Reports on demographic statistics provided by APA members for fiscal years’ 2014, 2015 and 2016 are now available. These statistics include data on gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT status, disability status, type of employment, and tenure status. Beginning with FY2016, we are also providing a separate report on APA members broken down by geographic region. For the US, the report uses census regions; for Canada, the report uses the four-region model. We welcome feedback and suggestions for improvements to our collection and reporting of demographic data. Suggestions may be emailed to membership@apaonline.org.

Making It Past the First Round
Advice to keep yourself from being eliminated in the first round of application
reviews. Though the advice pertains to applying to community colleges, much is more
generally applicable.

Free Range Philosophers
Free Range Philosophers presents interviews of people with advanced training in philosophy who are either working outside of traditional academic jobs or engaged in philosophical outreach or other philosophical activities outside of the academic classroom.

Phil Skills
We talk about the work we pursued outside of philosophy—how and why we chose it, how we landed our first non-academic jobs, how we built our careers from there. We also share advice and perspective for readers who are considering non-academic careers.

The AAUP Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession

The Chronicle of Higher Education Salary Data

The AACU Report on Liberal Arts Majors and Employment

The AACU Report on Liberal Arts Majors
and Employment - main page
The report, How Liberal Arts and Sciences Majors Fare in Employment: A Report on
Earnings and Long-Term Career Paths by Debra Humphreys and Patrick Kelly, provides
answers to common questions posed by students, parents, and policy makers who are
increasingly concerned about the value of college degrees.

Data on Women in Philosophy

Data on Women in Philosophy website
This site provides some new data on approximately 100 departments over the past 10 years and faculty at all ranks in Philosophical Gourmet Report (PGR) ranked and unranked programs for 2015.